Easy DIY Beaded Chandelier

For the last six months, I have been tripping over a builder’s grade chandelier in my garage. It was a perfectly nice chandelier and hung in our dining room for many years, but when I fell in love with the Cardboard Clover Chandelier, this ordinary fixture had to go.

I tried to sell it at a garage sale, but there were no takers. So, it was destined to be donated during my next trip to the ReStore. Luckily, I kept forgetting to take it with me.

I say “luckily,” because inspiration struck. The old chandelier was the right scale for our lofted playroom that I’m working to update, but it needed something to make it extraordinary. I’m not sure how the crazy idea of beaded necklaces popped into my mind, but Emma and I immediately raced to Party City for supplies.

The beads I bought were $1.99 for a set of 8 necklaces. I loved the colors and that they have a metallic sheen to them. I think I used a dozen sets total.

I cut each necklace between two of the beads so that it was a long, single strand. I added some hot glue to the the first two beads of the strand and then applied them to the chandelier. I’d wrap the strand around 4 or 5 times, and then I’d add a blob of hot glue to the chandelier to secure the beads and wrap some more. I finished each strand by adding glue to the last two beads an attaching them to the chandelier. I started the next strand where the previous had left off.

Because I wanted this to be funky and fun, I alternated the colors in a rainbow pattern. I plan on painting large horizontal turquoise and white stripes on the playroom walls, so the alternating stripes of the chandelier are going to be amazing in the room. You could do this with all one color, and I think it would look really luxe.

I wrapped and glued for a few hours each day over a three day period. When it was finished, I painted the old chain and a set of socket covers with Rustoleum’s Painters Touch spray paint in Blue Lagoon and then coated them both with a clear gloss.

Because the beads are metallic, the chandelier really shimmers in the light. We have a large window in the playroom, so it is sparkly even when it’s not lit.

I was worried that my 6 year old son would think it was too girly, but he thinks it’s the most amazing light he’s ever seen. He might not agree when he’s 10, but for now, I’ll take what I can get.

If you’d like to bead your own chandelier, I’d like to offer a few tips:

If you are starting with a fixture that’s not white or dark brown/black, I’d spray paint it before you start beading. You will be able to slightly see the base color underneath the beads.

Go with metallic beads instead of just plain plastic ones. It will kick your project up a few notches. If you can’t find them locally, try ordering from Party City or Oriental Trading online.

Prepare yourself for some glue gun burns. I used a low-melt glue and managed to burn my fingers a handful of times.

If your chandelier needs to be rewired, do that before you start beading it. It will be virtually impossible to take it apart without ruining it otherwise.

Know that your beads will not be incredibly close together on curves and just accept that. Geometry makes it so that your beads won’t touch on both sides of the curve. When you are finished with the chandelier, you can go back and glue in single beads into any places that have too much negative space.

When you are beading areas that you need to go around in a circle (like the silver cups that hold the sockets), start from the smallest part and work to the largest. I had to turn the chandelier upside down to do those parts. Otherwise, it’s hard to get the beads to lay straight.

Couldn’t you see this in hot pink in a preteen girl’s room? Or in silver tones in a funky hair salon? Or in turquoise over your dining room table?

Are you bedazzled over this chandelier? Have questions or need more directions? Let me know!

About Lindsay Ballard

Lindsay chronicles her projects, design ideas, and lifestyle tips here at Makely, where she shares tutorials and inspiration. Her DIY designs are bold and graphic, while her spirit is fun and full of color.

Lindsay lives outside of Austin, Texas with her husband (Tom), children (Zack and Emma), and dogs (Jack and Duke). She plays roller derby for the Rockin' City Rollergirls out of Round Rock, Texas.

Comments

Although the rainbow colours wouldn’t be my first choice, this looks amazing and I would love to see it in the sun! This version actually reminds me of something that would be in Jack Brennan’s New Orleans Cafe. I think you’re brilliant and I know the kids are going to love it!

I have a similar chandelier, only in BRASS. It’s horrible. I’ve been looking for funky ways of redoing it. What I loooove is that you posted ‘tips’. This is one of those things where you’d see it online and try to recreate it and then wonder why yours has gaps and hot glue showing and looks nothing like the one you saw online. Thanks for ‘keeping it real’. That’s refreshing in a thrifty mommy diy blog.

OMG….I am the queen of loving the UNEXPECTED. This is so cool. Isn’t always the case that when you find an “easy” project….it may be incredibly “time consuming”. But hey…love to do stuff like this while watching TV. Great job. Just got to find an old chandelier and figure out where I’d put it once I was done….but….hmmm…challenge accepted.

I love unique projects! I’ve noticed the pinning problem with EVERYTHING not just your blog, the past several days. I’ve discovered if you hover your cursor over the image size thing that appears at the bottom of the picture (when I use the “pin it” button), the “PIN IT” icon then appears on the picture, and you can then pin directly from the post. Weird.

No, really, it’s quite easy. All of the beaded necklaces were the same length, so each color ended in roughly the same place as I wrapped. A few were off because I didn’t wrap as tightly as the others, but it’s not noticeable at all.

Just discovered your website… I feel like I’ve been injected with motivation (and admiration!) to start revamping my whole house! Just a few questions- I’m a huge Anthro fan, on a nursing school budget. I know you recommend target, etc. I’m looking for websites that would sell mugs and bowels similar to the vintage-style feel of Anthro. Any suggestions? Thanks for your brilliance, Lindsay- I’m officially a follower!

…i’m thinking christmas! i need a lil more bling in my house and a new way to use the beads i have. i’ve draped and dangled and filled about everything in sight …now its time to wrap:) if i go neutral enough on my beads, i might be able to wrap our already spraypainted light fixture and leave it all year! fun!

ooh a solid colored glitzy fixture done like yours would be great over a bathtub too….

Hi Lindsay, just stumbled on your website from One Pretty Thing. I am so glad I did! I am in the process of redoing my basement into a family room/work-craft room and I have two old chandeliers I was going to paint bright orange. Guess what I am going to do now? Wrap it with metallic orange beads! Fantastic idea – thanks so much!

OK! I’m wanting to do a version of this but with Pearl(fake obviously) beads for my little girls room! She has a chandelier in her room now but it has pink on it and I was wondering what I was going to do now that she wants a purple room in our new house. The chandelier was quite pricey, so I wasn’t looking forward to not using it, but THIS post made my day. Can’t wait to get started!

This is a great idea! For low cost beads I used EBAY. I make a theme xmas tree every year so I use these bead necklaces as garlands on the tree and I’ve found the best deals for them on Ebay. Last time I got a HUGE box of beads (200 of them) for about $4.00 – and now with this idea I can keep an eye out for thrift store finds to glue the beads to.

instead of buying those beads, you need to find a friend who lives here in New Orleans to send you some beads! If you only knew how many of us have attics full of them…garages full of them, boxes in the closet full of them! flower pots full of them! I’m trying to remember where else I stashed them…LOL

I love your beading on a chandelier I want to make a glam rock chandelier so i thought I would ask your advice. If the beads are alread strung or I have to string them together, would I next do the glue gun and wrap to get them onto the metal of the chandelier? Its pretty awesome these chandeliers and you can look em up on glam rock chandeliers on the net… so I found the glass beads however I will have to string em myself.. there are all kinds of fancy stringing going on , I was hoping I could just wrap them like you did and add a variety of rhinestones etc

please help if you can just learning how to do this glad you put it out there

Hi Lindsay! I know it’s been awhile since you posted, but I just came across your brilliant up cycled chandelier this week while researching some techniques for beading. I love the way you applied the colors in sections; it flows beautifully! I’ve got the chandelier and just picked up the beads tonight at Party City (8 necklaces, one in each color for $1.99), although they didn’t have any in white. If I understood your gluing process correctly…you didn’t actually glue each bead,, correct? It sounded like you glued sections..a couple of beads every inch or two….yes? Did you apply the glue to the chandelier or to the beads? How has it held up? Would you do anything differently if you were going to make another one? Someone mentioned this before, but thank you so much for sharing your process and tips! This is so incredibly helpful!! You rock❤️!

[…] chandelier Wow. It’s the Mardi Gras chandelier, no? Lindsay, from the aptly named Living with Lindsay, decided to give a boring chandelier the drag queen treatment and really glam it up, with this […]

[…] This is what I found at the “Living with Lindsay” blog.The beads she boughy were about $1.99 a set, she used about twelve sets. She cut each necklace between two of the beads so that it was a long, single strand. She then added some hot glue to the the first two beads of the strand and then applied them to the chandelier. She wrapped the strands around 4 or 5 times, and then added a blob of hot glue to the chandelier to secure the beads and wrap some more. She finished each strand by adding glue to the last two beads an attaching them to the chandelier, the next strand began where the previous had left off. For more tips visit her site.. […]

About Makely

Lindsay chronicles her projects, design ideas, and lifestyle tips here at Makely, where she shares tutorials and inspiration. Her DIY designs are bold and graphic, while her spirit is fun and full of color.

Lindsay lives outside of Austin, Texas with her husband (Tom), children (Zack and Emma), and dogs (Jack and Duke). She plays roller derby for the Rockin' City Rollergirls out of Round Rock, Texas.